WordPress ate my homework…Give them a Hahn!

Last Saturday, a group of bloggers and I got together to participate in Twitter Taste Live, Bloggers Take Over.  Twitter Taste Live is an opportunity for Tweeple (or Twits as I prefer to call them) to taste the same wines at the same time, and Tweet (or blog or video) about them communally.  This is a chance for a larger community to taste collectively, regardless of their physical location.

For this TTL, we had the opportunity to pick our own wines.  As most of us had gone to the Wine Bloggers Conference, we were lucky enough to have blogger samples of Hahn Estates wines to taste.  Since this was a Blogger’s Chocie TTL, I thought that it was a great opportunity to pool our samples and get together as a group to taste.  There were four bloggers, a hapless victim, and a lot of wine!  Joining me in our mad adventure were The Brix Chicks, Liza & Xandria, DrXeno of WineLog, and James, a friend who I managed to convince to join Twitter for the occasion.  If you haven’t followed these guys on Twitter, go ahead!  It’s fun!

The Hahn Estates wine company has several brands.  One of my personal favorites is Huntington Wine Cellars, part of the Front Street Five (or is it 6 now?) on the south side of Healdsburg.  For this tasting, we were given blogger samples of the Hahn Estates and Hahn SLH lines, and we were happy to taste through and provided our feedback.  Also participating in our tasting were Russ, the Winehiker

, and Matt, who enjoys Babbling about NOthing as well as having A Good Time with Wine.  They weren’t in the room, but they were tasting along, which is the entire purpose of Twitter Taste Live.

• 2007 SLH Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Gris - lemonade, refreshing.  Tons of citrus and tropical fruit.  Nice round mouthfeel, not super crisp, nicely balanced with some creaminess and flavors of pinkgrapefruit. B+

• 2006 SLH Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay – Meyer lemon, tangerine, spicy oak. Very spicy, tastes overdone on the oak.  Lemon curd, maybe custard? C+ It’s too spicy and oaky for my taste in Chardonnay.

• 2006 Monterey Pinot Noir - Mushrooms, bark, forest floor.  very earthy spice pinot with a lot of evergreen…ceder? Lots of baking spice and cloves on the pinot, but has a finish that is a bit bitter and not very long.  B

• 2006 Central Coast Meritage – Very nice dusty cabernet nose. Very fruity, a lot of plum & blackberry on the front palate.  Long cab franc finish, but not very deep, with hints of plum tarte. Blend is 33% Merlot, 30% Cab Sav, 19% Pet Verdot, 11% cab franc, 7% malbec. Not very interesting but great value at $10.99. C+

• 2006 SLH Santa Lucia Highlands Syrah – This is a deep dark brooding man.  Lots of dusy blackberry on the nose. Tons of chocolate on the palate with blackberry pie and ripe plums. Definately a cool climate syrah that tickles my nose with white pepper and numbs my tounge with clove flavors.  It opens up nicely to have big juicy notes of black and blue fruits, black raspberries, loganberries, with a sprinkling of cloves & allspice.  I love this syrah. It’s very spicy, but would go well with red meat. I don’t eat red meat but well you know what I mean.  A-

• 2006 Central Coast Cabernet Sauvignon – spicy nose & palate.  Very fruity, a bit boring.  Very dry finish on the cab, not really my style.  C

My overwhelming impressing is that these wines are very spicy. for the most part that is a good thing, but it overwhelms the cabernet, and disguises some of the more subtle flavors.  Is this a central coast / Monterey thing?  I don’t know.  It hink this calls for some more tasting to determine!  My fFavorites of the night were the 2006 Monterey Pinot Noir and the 2006 SLH Santa Lucia Highlands Syrah.

There were of course, special guest stars later in the evening, but that is another story for another time.

Stay tuned, the next Twitter Taste Live is TOMORROW November 21st!  Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to find a wine made as closely to you as possible, drink and tweet.  While many of you may seek out grapes that are sourced nearby, us urban dwellers are lucky enough to find urban wineries nearby.  I am either going to have a Syrah produced at Crushpad, or something from a micro winery in the urban jungles of the East Bay.
Happy Tasting!